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Ever wonder what it was like during the early days of Facebook in Mark
Zuckerberg's dorm room or as Twitter was born in Jack Dorsey's
apartment? BravoTV hopes to capture that kind of excitement in
Start-Ups: Silicon Valley , a new show
that "explores the intertwining lives of a group of young
entrepreneurs on the path to becoming Silicon Valley's next
great success stories."

But remember, this is the channel that brought us The Real
Housewives franchise -- a fact that quickly becomes apparent
as the show's cast behaves more like reality TV
stars than the success-driven computer nerds they insist they
are.

In the first episode, we see brother-and-sister team Ben and
Hermione Way pitch their life-expectancy-predicting software
startup Ignite to prominent investor Dave McClure, founder of the
business incubator 500 Startups. But in true reality-show
style, we have to wade through 45 minutes of alcohol chugging,
petty fighting, spray tanning and poolside toga partying to
get there. Hermione proudly tells her brother she
arranged the meeting after sending McClure a text message of
her middle finger.

"[McClure] says if you're not upsetting someone in business,
you're doing something wrong," she tells her brother. But the UK
natives take the advice a little too far. The night before their
meeting, Ben and Hermione host a party at their home and arrive
to their meeting tired and unprepared. While showing up prepared
to an investor meeting is a no-brainer, here are three errors the
Way siblings commit during their meeting, that other young
entrepreneurs should take note to avoid.

1. Asking for too much money. The duo knows
McClure normally invests between $100,000 and $150,000 into each
startup, but they asked for $500,000. Hermione says she knows her
request is a "little bit high" but she's sure once he sees the
presentation, he'll "throw down the cash."

Asking for three to five times the normal investment isn't a
"little bit high," it's a sure way to get a ‘no.' McClure
reaffirms this when he tells the duo, "We like to do businesses
that aren't incredibly capital intensive."

2. Not showing focus. Ben tells McClure that
Ignite is one of 43 companies he owns, adding that he's "never
focused this much on one business." A surprised McClure says, "As
an investor that's a bit of a distraction. Why... are you focused
on 42 other businesses. I want you focused on the one that I'm
putting money into."

Investors invest in the person as much as the idea. A business
owner who isn't 100% focused doesn't get any cash.

3. Second-guessing an investor's business model.
McClure tells Ben and Hermione, "It's not a yes. We are trying to
do stuff that is somewhat predictable and not super expensive, on
a very frequent production oriented basis. We are trying to be
Henry Ford for venture capital." To which Hermione replies, "Then
you're never going to make a BMW."

Don't try to tell a potential investor how to run their business.
An irritated McClure tells Hermione, "If you look at the
historical precedent, Henry Ford eventually became a
multi-billion dollar industry. I'm not in the business of taking
irrational risks."